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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Christian Aid week approaching

After this Sunday's fantastic Taize Worship Together we had our usual first-Sunday-of-the-month lunch together. It was, as it commonly is, meat free, and the profits from the donations given afterwards will all go to Christian Aid this week.

In between the service and the meal Sarah from the Oxford Christian Aid office gave us an inspiring talk on this year's Christian Aid week theme 'Let's give the tools to help people out of poverty'.

As well as encouraging us to remember that lots of us doing a little together makes a huge difference, she mentioned that there are lots of 'alternative' ways to give to Christian Aid. She cited the Good Little Company's ethical sausages available in Waitrose (I was astonished that 7p a pack would add up to such a large sum, although I'm afraid I forgot to note it down). At the Christian Aid website there is a whole list of different ways to support them including through Traidcraft, Ecotricity and Triodos Banking, as well as cartridge recycling, internet access . . . .

In the meantime we have our own alternative means of giving because Hugh and Judy have wonderfully invited us to a barn dance to celebrate their anniversary and asked that all gifts should be donations to Christian Aid.

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Church of St John and St Stephen, Newtown, Reading. EcoCongregation

About this blog

I started this blog in November 2007 as a resource and a record of our church's journey towards becoming an EcoCongregation. In May 2009 we were assessed for the award and passed. It was due for renewal in 2012 but due to significant plans for rebuilding our church/school plant it seemed appropriate to wait a while. Once EcoCongregation was relaunched as EcoChurch we registered - various earlier activities had stopped or become infrequent so we were unsurprised to find we didn't make bronze. So a new journey has begun.

I hope that church members will find the blog useful and that it is also helpful to others with a concern for our environment. Please use any of the liturgy, green tips or ideas on it as you like. It would be lovely to hear back if you do. It would also be great to hear ideas and experiences from other churches.

The views expressed herein are my own and may not reflect those of all of the congregation.

The church of St John and St Stephen in Newtown, Reading is attached to a school with minimal green space. The Sunday morning congregation (about 70 from an electoral roll of just over 100) includes a wide range of ages and backgrounds and has long been concerned with overseas development issues (we are a Fairtrade church who support Tearfund and Christian Aid and several mission organisations. A number of the congregation are or have been involved in development and/or overseas mission). This concern was the inspiration for the decision to try to become an EcoCongregation.